The present invention relates to an apparatus for registering elevator call by employing a hall operation board which issues a destination call to designate a destination floor where a cage will go.
In the conventional elevator, a hall call is registered by an up button or a down button in a hall, and a cage is called by the hall call. Occupants on board the cage which has arrived must register a cage call by depressing a destination button installed in the cage, so that the cage is carried to a desired floor. In the conventional elevator, as described above, the occupants are required to depress a call button in the hall and again in the cage.
A system has recently been proposed as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 53-40843 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 54-14382, according to which destination buttons same as those in the cage are provided in the halls of the floors commonly for each of the cages, and a destination floor display unit is provided for the halls for each of the cages. Therefore, when people on a hall depress destination buttons to register destination calls, the cages are suitably allotted for the destination calls, and floors of the allotted destination calls are displayed on the destination floor display unit, so that people waiting on the halls who have depressed the destination buttons are allowed to know the allotted cages and so that destination floors of the cages are also displayed for the people waiting on other halls. According to this system, as soon as a destination call is allotted, a cage call for an allotted cage is automatically registered. Therefore, people waiting on the hall are not required to depress the destination button. Another great advantage is that occupants in a crowded cage are liberated from such a possibility that they are not allowed to touch the buttons to register the cage calls.
There has also been proposed a system according to which a cage call of the floor corresponding to a destination call is automatically registered when an allotted cage has arrived at the floor where the destination button is depressed, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 55-80659.
However, it is too expensive and is not practical to provide the destination floor display unit of the above-mentioned system for each floor and for each cage.
Therefore, there can be contrived a system in which up hall lanterns and down hall lanterns are provided but without providing the destination floor display unit, the registered destination calls are divided into those of the up direction and those of the down direction and are registered as up calls and down calls, a cage is allotted for each of the calls, a hall lantern of the allotted cage is turned on to give the people in advance information related to the cage that is to be placed in service like the case when the up button and the down button are provided in a conventional manner, and the individual destination calls are registered in the form of a cage call for the allotted cage.
According to this system, the cage is not allotted for each of the destination calls and, hence, the destination floor display unit is not required. That is, the hall lantern which is turned on enables the people to know the cage on which they are going to board, i.e., the cage for which a cage call (destination call) for a desired floor is to be automatically registered, before the cage arrives.
Before the allotted cage has been determined to stop at the hall, the hall lantern is usually turned on to serve as information for a cage that is to be placed in service. When the cage is decided to be stopped responsive to hall call (up call, down call, destination call) or cage call, the hall lantern flashes irrespective of the allotted cage or the non-allotted cage, to serve as information related to the arrival of cage and direction in which the cage moves.
Therefore, when the allotted cage and the non-allotted cage arrive at the hall maintaining a small time interval, people waiting for the arrival of cage may get confused in deciding which one they should go on board, since the hall lantern produces the same information for the arrival of the allotted cage and the non-allotted cage. Therefore, occupants who have happened to go on board the non-allotted cage (for which the cage call has not been automatically registered) must depress again a destination button while they are on board the cage. This reduces the meaning of destination buttons in the hall, giving the occupants an undesirable impression that their expectation was not accomplished.
Further, when the non-allotted cage has arrived at the hall responsive to cage call before the allotted cage arrives at the hall responsive to allotment call, impatient people waiting in the hall may go on board the non-allotted cage. Even in this case, the occupants must depress again the destination button in the cage in the same manner as the above-mentioned case.
Further, in the elevator in which the hall is provided with an up button and a down button only, registration of cage call may often be expected depending upon utilization of floors of the building or relations among the floors. For instance, in a building accommodating offices, an up button (or a down button) of the floor where offices exist will be depressed in the lunch time to register the up call (or the down call). As the cage responds thereto, a cage staying on the upper (or lower) floor where restaurant exists is registered without exception. In such a case, if the system has been so constructed that the cage call of a particular floor (such as the floor of restaurant) is automatically registered when the cage has responded to the hall call, the occupants on that floor are liberated from having to depress the destination button while they are on board the cage.
Even in this system, however, occupants who wish to go to particular floors among the occupants on board the non-allotted cage, have to push again the destination buttons in the cage, in case the allotted cage and the non-allotted cage have arrived at the hall almost simultaneously, or when the non-allotted cage has arrived at the hall prior to the allotted cage.